Japan Committed to Atomic Power as Renewable Energy Insufficient

The 40-year-old Fukushima plant, seen here in 2010, was built in the 1970s, when Japan’s first wave of nuclear construction began, stood up to the country’s worst earthquake on record only to have its power and back-up generators knocked out by the 7-meter tsunami that followed. Photographer: Tomohiro Ohsumi/Bloomberg

March 23 (Bloomberg) -- Japan remains committed to nuclear
power after a tsunami crippled the Fukushima Dai-Ichi plant,
leaking radiation, because the country needs non-polluting
energy sources, the government’s nuclear safety spokesman said.

“While people may become more cautious, renewable energy
alone isn’t sufficient, so nuclear power is essential,”
Hidehiko Nishiyama, a director general at the trade ministry,
said in an interview in Tokyo yesterday.

Workers have toiled round the clock to prevent Tokyo
Electric Power Co.’s plant from leaking more radiation into the
air and sea, after a tsunami triggered by the magnitude-9
earthquake on March 11 damaged auxiliary generators running its
cooling systems. The world’s worst nuclear accident since
Chernobyl in 1986 prompted officials in China and India and U.S.
lawmakers to call for a review of atomic energy plans.

“You can yell all you like about nuclear power, but sooner
or later you’ve got to decide how we’re going to keep the lights
turned on,” David Wark, a professor in high energy physics at
Imperial University in London, said by phone yesterday. “You’ve
got three choices: freeze, burn a lot of fossil fuels or build
nuclear power plants. All those countries that are planning to
build nuclear plants, in the end they don’t have any choice.”

With almost no oil or gas reserves of its own, nuclear
power has been a national priority for Japan since the end of
World War II, a conflict the country fought partly to secure oil
supplies. Japan has 54 operating nuclear reactors -- more than
any other country except the U.S. and France -- to power its
industries, pitting economic demands against safety concerns in
the world’s most earthquake-prone country.

‘No Nuclear Armageddon’

“Events in Japan could rebound to nuclear power’s
benefit,” Wark said. “When there is no nuclear Armageddon, you
can imagine people thinking it was all overdone.”

Before this month’s quake and tsunami, Japanese utilities
including Tokyo Electric, had planned to increase nuclear
power’s share of total electricity production to 50 percent by
2030 from 24 percent in 2008, the U.S. Energy Information
Administration says. Nuclear power plants in 2009 accounted for
27 percent of the nation’s electricity generation, the EIA says.

The 40-year-old Fukushima plant, built in the 1970s when
Japan’s first wave of nuclear construction began, stood up to
the country’s worst earthquake on record only to have its power
and back-up generators knocked out by the 7-meter tsunami that
followed.

Cooling Systems

Engineers should consider ways to protect auxiliary power
sources so plants can continue to keep spent fuel cool if a
catastrophic wave knocks out the main power source, said
Nishiyama, who has been briefing media on behalf of Japan’s
nuclear safety agency since the temblor.

Lacking electricity to pump water needed to cool the atomic
core, engineers vented radioactive steam into the atmosphere to
release pressure, leading to a series of explosions that blew
out concrete walls around some reactors.

Levels of radiation detected in the ocean 16 kilometers (10
miles) from the Fukushima coast, and spinach and milk produced
nearby have been found to exceed regulatory limits. Prime
Minister Naoto Kan this week restricted shipments of spinach
from Fukushima and nearby prefectures.

The levels detected don’t pose an immediate threat to human
health, Nishiyama said, adding that even in the worst-case
scenario, the 30-kilometer evacuation radius around the plant
should be sufficient.